Current Biology最新文献

The evolutionary and domestication history of mushroom-forming fungi remains poorly understood despite their ecological and economic significance. Here, we present the first large-scale population genomic study of the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), the world's most cultivated edible mushroom, integrating resequencing data from 482 global wild and commercial strains. Our analyses reveal a complex evolutionary history shaped by Quaternary glacial cycles. We find that geographic isolation caused by the Quaternary glaciation likely drove A. bisporus divergence around 2 mya centered in North America and Europe, with three distinct varieties, while interglacial expansions facilitated extensive gene flow between populations, promoting mixed origins in current A. bisporus var. bisporus populations. Our analyses demonstrated the white cap trait was the key artificial selective trait for domestication, and we successfully connected this domestication trait and its functional gene and found that cap-color evolution might be associated with the diverse function of AbPPO1, whose allele frequency trajectories supported a similar complex evolution process as the A. bisporus var. bisporus populations. By bridging evolutionary genomics with domestication genetics, our findings underscore the role of historical climate dynamics in shaping the biodiversity of mushroom-forming fungi, illustrate the genetic complexity of the button mushroom domestication, and provide a genomic framework for the utilization and improvement of A. bisporus germplasm resources.

Meristems are generative centers from which the bodies of land plants develop. Marchantia polymorpha spores are single cells formed during meiosis that-upon germination-form an early cell mass on which a flat prothallus develops. A single stem cell niche (meristem) develops de novo at the margin of the prothallus to generate the thallus plant body. Here we show that the prothallus forms at the apical pole of the early cell mass and represses the formation of other prothalli in a light- and auxin-dependent manner. Light is required for prothallus development and the formation of an apical auxin signaling minimum, marked by expression of LOW AUXIN RESPONSIVE (MpLAXR). MpLAXR marks the sporeling apex-the site of organogenesis-and predicts the positioning of the future apical stem cell on the prothallus. Ablation of the dominant prothallus induces the development of a suppressed prothallus in a process comparable to apical dominance. A similar molecular program operates during plant regeneration from a single differentiated thallus cell, which regains stemness (pluripotency) upon surgical isolation from its tissue context, and the isolated cell divides, forming an early cell mass with an MpLAXR-expressing apex where a flat prothallus with a single meristem forms. We conclude that a light-dependent, apical auxin signaling minimum is required for the formation of the prothallus and the de novo development of the first meristem in Marchantia polymorpha.

Leucine-rich repeat extensin (LRX) 3/4/5 and FERONIA (FER) jointly regulate plant salt tolerance, but the mechanisms by which LRX3/4/5 modulate FER activity in response to salt stress remain largely unclear. Here, we found that lrx345 mutations reduce FER kinase activity, which explains the phenotypic similarity between lrx345 and fer-4. Immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry (IP-MS) analysis reveals a physical interaction between FER and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), with PP2A directly dephosphorylating FER. Disruption of PP2A restores FER kinase activity and salt hypersensitivity in the lrx345 mutant, establishing PP2A as a key negative regulator of FER kinase activity. Conversely, FER inhibits PP2A phosphatase activity through phosphorylation, forming a dynamic feedback loop. Further mechanistic studies show that FER and PP2A coordinately regulate plant salt tolerance by controlling auxin transport via the modulation of PIN3 phosphorylation. Collectively, our work unveils an antagonistic kinase-phosphatase pair that fine-tunes phosphorylation-dependent signaling to optimize plant adaptation to salt stress.

The retina is composed of discrete functional cell types that are also characterized by distinct morphology and gene expression. It remains, however, unclear whether similar discrete functional cell types exist in the visual regions downstream of the retina. Here, we used two-photon calcium imaging to investigate the response-space structure in the retina and in the superficial layers of the mouse superior colliculus (SC), a major retinorecipient area. We found that although retinal ganglion cells showed a clear dependence between responses to luminance and motion, responses to the two stimuli exhibited weaker couplings in collicular neurons. Because of this decoupling, functional clustering based on responses to both luminance and motion had significantly reduced separability compared with clustering based on responses to either. Our work suggests that the SC is not simply a relay station for retinal inputs but rather generates novel feature selectivity that diversifies cellular responses, perhaps through nonlinear neural processes involving the decoupling and recoupling of retinal ganglion cells' feature selectivity.

Imagine the tools a cow would make. This idea, humorously illustrated in Gary Larson's Far Side cartoon, captures a widespread assumption: cows are neither problem-solvers nor tool users. In science, as in culture, livestock species are often cognitively underestimated, reinforced by their utilitarian role and persistent mind-denial biases associated with meat consumption¹. Despite over 10,000 years of domestication, research on cattle cognition remains scarce and confined to applied contexts such as productivity and welfare². Tool use, while rarely observed, offers a stringent test of cognitive flexibility. Defined as the manipulation of an external object to achieve a goal via a mechanical interface³, tooling ranges from species-typical routines to innovative, problem-specific acts^4,5. We report here our experimental demonstration of flexible egocentric tooling in a pet cow (Bos taurus), Veronika, who uses a deck brush to self-scratch. Across randomized trials, she preferred the bristled end but switched to the stick end when targeting softer lower-body areas. This adaptive deployment of tool features reveals multi-purpose tool use not previously reported in non-primate mammals. Our findings broaden the taxonomic scope of flexible tool use and invite a reassessment of livestock cognition. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Eukaryotes usually inherit genetic material from their parents, but occasional cross-species transfers can occur. A new study finds that these exchanges are surprisingly common in fungi, revealing an overlooked route for mobile elements to persist and impact host genomes.

The diversification of Hymenoptera is a transformative evolutionary story in insect evolution, fundamentally tied to major global events like the Mid-Mesozoic Parasitoid Revolution (MMPR) and the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution (ATR). The recent paper by Jouault et al.¹ provided a first large-scale quantification of Hymenoptera diversification using fossil occurrence data through two complementary Bayesian methods: PyRate, which models origination and extinction dynamics, and the Bayesian Brownian Bridge (BBB), which estimates clade origination and extinction ages^2,3,4,5. In a critique, Boudinot et al.⁶ raise concerns that our analyses overfit a sparse fossil record, misinterpret extinction signals, and overlook the putative absence of a Permian Hymenoptera ghost lineage. However, these concerns were not accompanied by statistical tests. Moreover, the original methodological papers include extensive simulations and empirical evaluations explicitly designed to assess the robustness and behavior of these models under varying fossil recovery scenarios; we direct readers to those studies for full details^2,3,4,5,7. Here, we clarify our methodology and counter these claims. Far from undermining our work, the critique merely reiterates and highlights the interpretive caution that underpins our study.

Interview with Patrícia Izar, who studies the behavioral ecology, plasticity, and cognition of Platyrrhine primates at the University of São Paulo.

Chytrid fungi provide a model for studying foam-like cellularization, where nuclei that are dispersed throughout the cytoplasm are synchronously compartmentalized into daughter cells. This organization poses geometric challenges not faced by cells undergoing conventional cytokinesis or Drosophila monolayer cellularization, where nuclei are organized in linear or planar arrangements with ready access to the plasma membrane. We use the chytrid Spizellomyces punctatus to show that chytrid cellularization begins with migration of nuclei and their attached centrosomes to the plasma membrane, where centrosome-associated vesicles mark sites of membrane invagination. These vesicles then extend inward, resulting in tubular furrows that branch and merge to create a honeycomb of polyhedral membrane compartments-a cellularization foam-each with a nucleus and cilium. Using inhibitors and laser ablation, we show that tensile forces produced by actomyosin networks drive aphrogenesis (foam generation), while microtubules are important for foam patterning and ciliogenesis but are not essential for cellularization. Finally, we suggest that chytrids may have incorporated ancestral mechanisms associated with ciliogenesis to coordinate the association of internal nuclei with membrane furrows to solve the unique geometric challenges associated with aphrogenic cellularization.